I will be honest with you all. I was excited about this book, but didnâ€™t know what I would think of it when I finished. I was hoping for something in the same vein as THE ASSISTANTS by Camille Perri. What I got was different, but equally as enjoyable.

TOUCH follows the evolution of Sloane. She is a trend forecaster hired to help guide a tech company create products for the childless. However, as time progresses and she interacts with her co-workers, Sloane begins to feel that the next big trend may have nothing to do with technology at all.

Through wit, the pure randomness of the character of the French "neo-sensualist" Roman Bellard, heartfelt moments, and blunt honesty, this book confronts its reader with the idea that we are all becoming too segregated from each other. The "big ideas"proposed are extremely timely and will definitely make the reader think about their day-to-day interactions. TOUCH could have been a very heavy read, but the author manages to entertain her readers while she has her characters tackle more than surface issues. This is where the beauty is in this book. The lightness and humor balances the more deep and complicated issues that are presented.

Courtney Maum now has one more fan. I cannot wait to read what she gives us next.

Reviewer Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Plot Summary:

From the author of the acclaimed I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, a satirical and moving novel in the spirit of Maria Semple and Jess Walter about a New York City trend forecaster who finds herself wanting to overturn her own predictions, move away from technology, and reclaim her heart.

Sloane Jacobsen is the most powerful trend forecaster in the world (she was the foreseer of the swipe), and global fashion, lifestyle, and tech companies pay to hear her opinions about the future. Her recent forecasts on the family are unwavering: the world is over-populated, and with unemployment, college costs, and food prices all on the rise, having children is an extravagant indulgence.

So it's no surprise when the tech giant Mammoth hires Sloane to lead their groundbreaking annual conference, celebrating the voluntarily childless. But not far into her contract, Sloane begins to sense the undeniable signs of a movement against electronics that will see people embracing compassion, empathy, and in-personism again. She's struggling with the fact that her predictions are hopelessly out of sync with her employer's mission and that her closest personal relationship is with her self-driving car when her partner, the French neo-sensualist Roman Bellard, reveals that he is about to publish an op-ed on the death of penetrative sex a post-sexual treatise that instantly goes viral. Despite the risks to her professional reputation, Sloane is nevertheless convinced that her instincts are the right ones, and goes on a quest to defend real life human interaction, while finally allowing in the love and connectedness she's long been denying herself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Courtney Maum is the author of the acclaimed novel I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, the forthcoming Touch, and the chapbook Notes from Mexico. Her short fiction, book reviews, and essays on the writing life have been widely published in outlets such as The New York Times, O Magazine, Tin House, Electric Literature, and Buzzfeed, and she has co-written films that have debuted at Sundance and won awards at Cannes. At various points in her life, she has been a trend forecaster, a fashion publicist, and a party promoter for Corona Extra. She currently works as a product namer for M·A·C cosmetics and other companies from her home in Litchfield County, CT, where she founded the multidisciplinary creative retreat, #TheCabins (which is open for applications until June 1st, btw!)